The Aqualish were tusked bipeds from the planetAndo whose appearance combined aspects of arachnids and pinniped aquatic mammals. Aqualish had a reputation for being nasty, crude and aggressive, and generally pursued off-world careers as mercenaries, bounty hunters, and pirates. One of the most infamous such Aqualish was the smugglerPonda Baba.

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An amphibious species native to the planet Ando, the Aqualish people were made up of three distinct races which included the Aquala, the Ualaq and the Quara. Although they all had their differences, their baseline genetic structure was the same and their appearances did not vary so drastically as to characterize them as different species. All Aqualish had two facial tusks which curved down over their mouths; a trait which added to their appearance as arachnids.[1] Indeed, the Aqualish had some arachnid genetic material in their distant past, as demonstrative in their relationship with the Harch species.[7] These facial tusks were highly sensitive to heat and cold, and were used for cracking open the hard shells of shellfish or burrowing through the swampy loam of their homeworld.[3]

The Aquala subspecies was considered to be the baseline Aqualish breed. Having finned hands and two bulbous black eyes, the Aquala were unable to manipulate most machinery or equipment developed by the galaxy's many species which designed these tools for beings with digits. As a result, Aquala tended to remain on their homeworld in greater numbers than either of the other subspecies.[1] The Aquala hated their Quara relatives, which was characteristic of each of the subspecies shared hatred of each other as they believed their race to be the most superior. The Quara had developed clawed, five-fingered hands and like the Aquala had two eyes. Combined with the Ualaq, the Quara made up only ten percent of the Aqualish population. This was due to their ability to use equipment offworld designed for fingered species; Thus, they were the subspecies more commonly found off-world.[1] The Ualaq, considered by some specialists to be the result of genetic mutation,[8] had four eyes instead of two and fingered hands which varied from three to five digits on each.[9] The least common subspecies, the Ualaq often times journeyed far from Ando to avoid discrimination by the Aquala.[1]

The Aquala hated their Quara relatives, as they blamed them for the image the Aqualish had in the galaxy as thugs. Because of this the latter subspecies were considered pariahs on Ando, which had a lower population of Aqualish than the galaxy itself.[10] All three Aqualish subspecies spoke mutually intelligible dialects of the same language. Quarrelsome and thug-like, the Aqualish culture revolved around aggression and toughness, with diplomacy being one of their weakest attributes.[3]

The Aqualish evolved into three races which were constantly at war with each other: the Aquala, the baseline race of the oceans, the Quara of the wetlands, and the Ualaq of the caves and dark rain forests. Each race believed they were the dominant branch, and allegations leveled by the Aquala that the other two races caused a decline in the harvests of fish eventually escalated into the Aqualish Civil War. In a shocking turn of events, the war ultimately ended in a treaty which saw the unification of all three races. After the war ended, a group of Human settlers stumbled upon the world and were killed by the startled and aggressive Aqualish. Confiscating the ship which brought the supposed invaders to the world, the Aqualish extrapolated the secrets of space travel from the exploratory craft and set forth on a campaign of conquest to the neighboring world of Andando. Not long after the landing, Andando was left a smoldering ruin, rendered inhospitable by the barbarous Aqualish.[11]

While originally confined to their homeworld, contact with the Galactic Republic opened up space transit for the Aqualish and the colonization of the Andoan Free Colonies.
A community of Whiphids and Aqualish lived on the planet Gertafuu VI, trading with exotic foodstuff and furs.[16]

In one of A New Hope's best known continuity errors, Ponda Baba's arm has fin-like hands when still attached, but is hairy and clawed in the close-up shots of the severed arm on the floor. This inspired the writers at West End Games to develop the Aquala and Quara types of Aqualish. Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionaryretconned the error by creating a new character, Teak Sidbam, said to be sometimes mistaken for Baba.

When Aqualish characters appeared in the prequel trilogy, more detailed, four-eyed masks—Ualaq masks—were used.